Quora biased against Mormonism?

[cdowis]

I have been very active on Quora, and responding to the critics.  My answers have received positive upvotes, but the moderators seem rather unhappy with me.

Today someone asked the question why members of other religions have a testimony of their religion, and that is not exclusive to Mormonism.  I gave a response that all religions have a portion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the LDS church the fullness of the Gospel.  The Holy Spirit will testify to these individuals based on the truth in their religion.

I then gave a bottom line that there can be no authentic testimony of a falsehood, but only for Gospel truth.

The mods immediately deleted the post and no way to alter the post.  This has happened several times, so I then chose to delete my account.

What is the topic you want to discuss? Do not create board wars.

 

[Duncan]

and what is Quora? 

[mfbukowski]

10 minutes ago, cdowis said:

I have been very active on Quora, and responding to the critics.  My answers have received positive upvotes, but the moderators seem rather unhappy with me.

Today someone asked the question why members of other religions have a testimony of their religion, and that is not exclusive to Mormonism.  I gave a response that all religions have a portion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the LDS church the fullness of the Gospel.  The Holy Spirit will testify to these individuals based on the truth in their religion.

I then gave a bottom line that there can be no authentic testimony of a falsehood, but only for Gospel truth.

The mods immediately deleted the post and no way to alter the post.  This has happened several times, so I then chose to delete my account.

 

I have sometimes answered this question more gently saying something like

Quote

"God leads us individually on the path he sees we need to attend to grow closer to him.  I happen to believe that "all paths eventually lead" to the fullness of the gospel, but others may disagree with that.  At any rate, I think that each of us may receive the answer that is right for US INDIVIDUALLY for this time in my life.  It is possible that some may need to be Evangelical for a while to learn certain principles, others perhaps need to be Catholic to get closer to God.  Anyway, that is how I understand that others may receive perfectly "valid" revelations that may differ from mine, but that in the end we will end up on the same road"

I think that says about the same thing your reply was but is less alienating a way to say it.   "My way or the highway" seldom gets traction among those who disagree with you, so to reach them I think we need to choose our words carefully.  I know you know that, but you might want to try presenting it more that way.

The way you handled it works for an LDS audience but not one who is not.  Suppose someone told you that Evangelicalism was the only true gospel of Jesus Christ.  You might feel more inclined to attack them.  But if they said that you believed that everyone would eventually see the truth of Evangelicalism in a gentle way, that would be more persuasive.

Of course I might also include the idea that we believe that those who do not fully understand the gospel choices here will have a chance in the afterlife to hear the message fully, that might even make it even more gentle.

All you are doing in that case is saying "we disagree now, but eventually I believe we will agree"

That is a pretty gentle way of saying it IMO

[Atheist Mormon]

22 minutes ago, cdowis said:

I have been very active on Quora, and responding to the critics.  My answers have received positive upvotes, but the moderators seem rather unhappy with me.

Today someone asked the question why members of other religions have a testimony of their religion, and that is not exclusive to Mormonism.  I gave a response that all religions have a portion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the LDS church the fullness of the Gospel.  The Holy Spirit will testify to these individuals based on the truth in their religion.

I then gave a bottom line that there can be no authentic testimony of a falsehood, but only for Gospel truth.

The mods immediately deleted the post and no way to alter the post.  This has happened several times, so I then chose to delete my account.

What is the topic you want to discuss? Do not create board wars.

 

I always found it humorous claim that all religions have part of the truth of Gospel, however never seen anyone explain what part of "truth" that might be.

It is  like all those entities acknowledge there is a law Speed of light but on says 100.000 and other says 300.000 KM.......

[theplains]

40 minutes ago, mfbukowski said:

Of course I might also include the idea that we believe that those who do not fully understand the gospel choices here will have a chance in the afterlife to hear the message fully, that might even make it even more gentle.

If Islam really is the correct way (and other religious faiths are wrong) and you knowingly reject it now, saying you
can have another chance in the afterlife is one of the most dangerous teachings out there ... because it gives you
a false sense of hope.

Regards,
Jim

[Storm Rider]

13 hours ago, Atheist Mormon said:

I always found it humorous claim that all religions have part of the truth of Gospel, however never seen anyone explain what part of "truth" that might be.

It is  like all those entities acknowledge there is a law Speed of light but on says 100.000 and other says 300.000 KM.......

This comment does not make a lot of sense and, on the surface, seems absurd.  For example, easy, quick answer - What truth does Catholicism have?  They know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, was born of a virgin, who lived and died for the sins of all humanity.  They know that baptism is vital for salvation.  Do I need to go on?  

I suppose if forced to see everything through an extremely black prism then you can get to your position, but you really have to work at it.  Name the religion, church, denomination, and I can identify a long list of truths that each will have.  I would expect that almost anyone could. 

Edited September 1, 2016 by Storm Rider

[The Nehor]

[RevTestament]

4 hours ago, cdowis said:

I have been very active on Quora, and responding to the critics.  My answers have received positive upvotes, but the moderators seem rather unhappy with me.

Today someone asked the question why members of other religions have a testimony of their religion, and that is not exclusive to Mormonism.  I gave a response that all religions have a portion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the LDS church the fullness of the Gospel.  The Holy Spirit will testify to these individuals based on the truth in their religion.

I then gave a bottom line that there can be no authentic testimony of a falsehood, but only for Gospel truth.

The mods immediately deleted the post and no way to alter the post.  This has happened several times, so I then chose to delete my account.

What is the topic you want to discuss? Do not create board wars.

 

Boards usually have agendas. I have found none to be completely free. Even if the board promotes free discussion often a particular mod will take a disliking to LDS points of view. I have had a mod that deleted all my threads when the site went through a software update. One site took a particular disliking to the LDS idea that God was once a man, and said that is not Christian, and booted LDS off the non-traditional Christian forum. I believe it was because people were becoming interested in things LDS which was contrary to their idea of trying to win over non-traditional Christians. I have experienced some form of censorship on almost every religion board on which I have posted very much. It just seems to come with the territory. 

[Calm]

5 hours ago, Duncan said:

and what is Quora? 

Quora is an answer service, like yahoo answers...people write in questions, others post answers and then readers vote on which ones they like the best and the higher rating gets popped to the top.

Quote

 

Gather Around a Question

The heart of Quora is questions — questions that affect the world, questions that explain recent world events, questions that guide important life decisions, and questions that provide insights into why other people think differently. Quora is a place where you can ask questions you care about and get answers that are amazing.

Quora has only one version of each question. It doesn’t have a left wing version, a right wing version, a western version, and an eastern version. Quora brings together people from different worlds to answer the same question, in the same place — and to learn from each other. We want Quora to be the place to voice your opinion because Quora is where the debate is happening. We want the Quora answer to be the definitive answer for everybody forever.

Understand The World and The People In It

Quora has content you will feel good about having read. Quora helps you understand why the world works the way it does, why people behave the way they do, and what we can all do to make the world better. Quora provides a personalized feed of insightful answers to questions you hadn’t realized you should ask.

Quora’s answers come from people who really understand the issues and have first-hand knowledge. Quora is the place to read Barack Obama on the Iran deal, prisoners on life in prison, scientists on global warming, police officers on how to deter burglars, and TV producers on how their shows are made. Quora is the place to read inspiring people such as Gloria Steinem, Stephen Fry, Hillary Clinton, Glenn Beck, Sheryl Sandberg, Vinod Khosla, and Gillian Anderson directly answering the questions people most wanted them to answer. Quora is where you can read important insights that have never been shared anywhere else, from people you could never reach any other way.

 

https://www.quora.com/about

It isn't really a message board like we do here.

In their lists of interest, technology and science comes first.  Religion isn't even listed.  That might be evidence of a bias right there....or a glitch.

Not a glitch...going through their interest list, I went through a couple of hundred I am guessing and so far even though they go into minute detail on some subject, for religion it is only "theology" and "spirituality". 

Ah...religion appears to be stuck at the bottom though they have a number of options to choose from.  Given it has taken me a number of minutes of going through topics to get there as well as the few in comparison to other topics, it seems to me likely the owners or whoever sets up the page are not that interested in politics, celebrity watching, religion, media and very interested in anything science or health, food related, and educational.

Edited September 1, 2016 by Calm

[Sleeper Cell]

6 hours ago, theplains said:

If Islam really is the correct way (and other religious faiths are wrong) and you knowingly reject it now, saying you
can have another chance in the afterlife is one of the most dangerous teachings out there ... because it gives you
a false sense of hope.

Wasn’t MFB referring specifically to those who “do not fully understand?”  How can a person be said to "knowingly reject" something which he doesn’t fully understand?  

At what point is a person deemed to “fully understand” the gospel choices here?  I suspect that this is probably something that will be decided on a case by case basis by someone above my “pay grade.”  Far, far above.

I fail to see how this particular LDS doctrine would create a  false sense of hope with respect to your own salvation.  Presumably LDS doctrine would not give any sense of hope to those who don’t believe the LDS church is “the correct way.“  If you are LDS and the  LDS church turns out to be “the correct way,“ why would you need another chance to hear the gospel in the next life.?   And how would this LDS doctrine give anyone a sense of hope that they will get a second chance in the afterlife in the event another religion turns out to be “the correct way?“  (Well, as a Mormon, I am not worried about the possibility that Islam is “the correct way.“  Even if Islam turns out to be “the correct way” the doctrine of my incorrect church will still trump “the correct way”)   

It conceivably may give a Mormon a false sense of hope regarding the salvation of someone else (i. e., a non-Mormon).  Is that what you are referring to? 
 

Edited September 1, 2016 by Sleeper Cell

[Sleeper Cell]

7 hours ago, Atheist Mormon said:

I always found it humorous claim that all religions have part of the truth of Gospel, however never seen anyone explain what part of "truth" that might be.

It is  like all those entities acknowledge there is a law Speed of light but on says 100.000 and other says 300.000 KM....

Perhaps you might give us an example of a religion that has absolutely no belief in common with any LDS belief.  I suspect that even you, as a self proclaimed atheist, still share some beliefs with your former church.  For example, that it is wrong to steal.  

BTW, I presume you meant km/sec, not km (which is a unit of distance, not velocity)  
 

[cdowis]

6 hours ago, Sleeper Cell said:

It conceivably may give a Mormon a false sense of hope regarding the salvation of someone else (i. e., a non-Mormon).  Is that what you are referring to? 
 

It gives context to Peter's statement

1 Peter 4  [6] For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.

Not a false hope, but the truth that God is no respecter of persons, that he is merciful and gives those who have no knowledge of the Gospel an opportunity to be judged with full knowledge of the fullness of the Gospel, and to be judged based on how they lived according to the light that they possessed here on earth.

The  "false hope" is for those who reject God and His prophets, the false hope that they will avoid judgement for their choices here on earth.  That they will avoid the Final Judgement when all things will be revealed.

Edited September 1, 2016 by cdowis

[cdowis]

6 hours ago, Sleeper Cell said:

Wasn’t MFB referring specifically to those who “do not fully understand?”  How can a person be said to "knowingly reject" something which he doesn’t fully understand?  

At what point is a person deemed to “fully understand” the gospel choices here?

Only God Himself can and will make that judgement.

[Atheist Mormon]

23 minutes ago, cdowis said:

Only God Himself can and will make that judgement.

Yea, really convenient......I'm waiting & holding my breath.......Is there other alternative? Obviously I have no other choice; I can't see anything I can't test anything....All I have to do is wait (by keeping commandments). Meanwhile God forbid that I covet my neighbor's cute wife or caught in a lie.....

 

[Atheist Mormon]

5 hours ago, Sleeper Cell said:

Perhaps you might give us an example of a religion that has absolutely no belief in common with any LDS belief.

Check Inca, Maya, Aztec religions.....The heads regularly rolled down from Pyramid tops.....And think also...If Human history goes back to hundred thousand years...We have this Christian Gospel last two thousand years and the average Joe meanwhile was not able to read the scriptures because the Bible was not widely available. 

[cdowis]

7 minutes ago, Atheist Mormon said:

 Meanwhile God forbid that I covet my neighbor's cute wife or caught in a lie.....

 

I hear that hell is not all that it is cracked up to be, especially during the summer.  Be sure to get back to us and let us know what it's like.

Edited September 1, 2016 by cdowis

[stemelbow]

14 hours ago, cdowis said:

I have been very active on Quora, and responding to the critics.  My answers have received positive upvotes, but the moderators seem rather unhappy with me.

Today someone asked the question why members of other religions have a testimony of their religion, and that is not exclusive to Mormonism.  I gave a response that all religions have a portion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the LDS church the fullness of the Gospel.  The Holy Spirit will testify to these individuals based on the truth in their religion.

I then gave a bottom line that there can be no authentic testimony of a falsehood, but only for Gospel truth.

The mods immediately deleted the post and no way to alter the post.  This has happened several times, so I then chose to delete my account.

What is the topic you want to discuss? Do not create board wars.

 

Those stinkin' anti....oh wait, is that a message from the mods here hoping you abide by the rules?

Kind of ironic that you come here to complain about the moderating of one place only to learn that doing so is against rules here.  Maybe just maybe, you need to read rules more closely and get a better feel for what the place expects before you start complaining about unfairness. 

[Damien the Leper]

13 hours ago, Storm Rider said:

This comment does not make a lot of sense and, on the surface, seems absurd.  For example, easy, quick answer - What truth does Catholicism have?  They know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, was born of a virgin, who lived and died for the sins of all humanity.  They know that baptism is vital for salvation.  Do I need to go on?  

I suppose if forced to see everything through an extremely black prism then you can get to your position, but you really have to work at it.  Name the religion, church, denomination, and I can identify a long list of truths that each will have.  I would expect that almost anyone could. 

Hey Storm! Just for fun, I'd like you to comparatively list gospel truths using Christadelphianism and Jehovah's Witnesses only. This isn't an attack or anything. Just fun.

[Robert F. Smith]

10 hours ago, RevTestament said:

Boards usually have agendas. I have found none to be completely free. Even if the board promotes free discussion often a particular mod will take a disliking to LDS points of view. I have had a mod that deleted all my threads when the site went through a software update. One site took a particular disliking to the LDS idea that God was once a man, and said that is not Christian, and booted LDS off the non-traditional Christian forum. I believe it was because people were becoming interested in things LDS which was contrary to their idea of trying to win over non-traditional Christians. I have experienced some form of censorship on almost every religion board on which I have posted very much. It just seems to come with the territory. 

One should have nothing to do with such dishonesty.

[Robert F. Smith]

9 hours ago, Calm said:

Quora is an answer service, like yahoo answers...people write in questions, others post answers and then readers vote on which ones they like the best and the higher rating gets popped to the top.

..........................................................  

It is rare to find a true open forum on the internet.  Particularly one which is substantive in nature.  Wikipedia is a nice idea for creating encyclopedic entries, and has many answers, but sometimes becomes a site for warfare and dissemination of propaganda.  The other day Facebook decided to eliminate human-managed news, replacing it with an algorithm searching for high-interest items and automatically publishing them.  Unfortunately, that led to completely false information being highlighted simply because it had gotten a lot of hits elsewhere.  Human moderators with high ethical and intellectual qualities are needed in all fora.

[cdowis]

1 hour ago, stemelbow said:

Kind of ironic that you come here to complain about the moderating of one place only to learn that doing so is against rules here.   Maybe just maybe, you need to read rules more closely

I posted here because I was curious to see if others have had this experience with other boards, and for those who post on Quora, perhaps I broke some rule.  Perhaps you should read the rule about being a "net nanny".

Edited September 1, 2016 by cdowis

[Sleeper Cell]

2 hours ago, cdowis said:

Only God Himself can and will make that judgement.

Hence my statement:  "I suspect that this is probably something that will be decided on a case by case basis by someone above my “pay grade.”  Far, far above".

[stemelbow]

15 minutes ago, cdowis said:

I posted here because I was curious to see if others have had this experience with other boards, and for those who post on Quora, perhaps I broke some rule.  Perhaps you should read the rule about being a "net nanny".

Ya got me.  Take care.  Wish you the best on Quora. 

[Freedom]

2 hours ago, Atheist Mormon said:

Check Inca, Maya, Aztec religions.....The heads regularly rolled down from Pyramid tops.....And think also...If Human history goes back to hundred thousand years...We have this Christian Gospel last two thousand years and the average Joe meanwhile was not able to read the scriptures because the Bible was not widely available. 

These religions believed in a God. They also have basic understandings of obedience. The Christian gospel goes back to Adam. We do not know when Adam lived, but he was likely among the first humans who could read and write. God has always provided his gospel when his children were willing to accept it. 

[Storm Rider]

1 hour ago, Valentinus said:

Hey Storm! Just for fun, I'd like you to comparatively list gospel truths using Christadelphianism and Jehovah's Witnesses only. This isn't an attack or anything. Just fun.

JW's - They believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; they believe in the Great Commission of sharing the gospel message to the world; believe in revelation, apostasy, guidance of the Holy Spirit are immediate beliefs that come to mind.

The Christadelphians believe in the God of Israel; the God is a separate being from the Son, believe in baptism by immersion, repentance; importance of discipleship, understand the old covenant of the OT; believe in the resurrection.

Both have truths they teach. I am sure there are many more, but these come immediately to mind.